Give me one month and every word in the English language and I can write you a bad poem. One year? You’ll likely get about the same result. You could say I have difficulties with the form. That being my background, I marvel at books like Lemonade, that operate within very limited guidelines yet manage to produce top notch results.Â A book that will amaze and then enlighten. That’s a pretty solid one-two punch.

In creating this collection, Raczka was inspired by the one word poems of Andrew Russ.Â As explained on the first page, Russ will take a word – rain, for example – and craft a poem using only words that share the letters “r” “a” “i” and “n”. Here’s what it looks like:

rain

i
ran
in

These guidelines are fairly simple in explanation, but I would venture to guess quite difficult in execution. Raczka takes the concept and runs with it, creating one word poems for all sorts of words – bleachers, friends, and bicycles among them. Each poem gets its own page. On one side the word is introduced and illustrated, and on the other the poem appears neatly arranged. Some are funny:

earthworms

a
short
storm

worms
here

worms
there

wear
shoes

While other simply and effectively capture a moment in time:

bleachers

ball
reaches
here

bases
clear

cheers

When an author sticks to this sort of strict plan while writing in such a normally carefree form, I fear the finished product might not live up to the idea. I had a similar concern going into the recent Mirror Mirror. But just like Marilyn Singer’s ace collection of reverso poems, Raczka’s work is repeatedly wonderful.

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

I just shared this book in the library with my 5th and 6th graders and challenged them to create their own poetry…just like Bob’s. Some wined and complained. Some rose to the challenge, and a challenge it was. Students then shared their poetry during our first “Open Mic Poetry” during lunch this week. I was very proud of them!

About 100 Scope Notes

Children's literature news, reviews and assorted school librarian oddities. Combine one part kid's books, one part school librarianship, a splash of absurdity and you get 100 Scope Notes.

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com. He's also on...